The present invention is directed to the loading of catalyst particles. In particular, the invention provides a method and an apparatus for the uniform loading of catalyst particles in a reactor having a plurality of catalyst tubes.
In conventional procedures for the catalyst loading of the above type of tubular reactors, the catalyst particles are poured in large amounts on the top tube sheet in the reactors, and the particles are allowed to flow into the catalyst tubes. By this method, the loading time of the tubes is very short, and the loading density of catalyst particles are low.
Further a drawback of the conventional loading procedures is a non-uniform distribution of catalyst particles in different tubes of the reactor. By simply pouring large amounts of catalyst particles on the tube sheet, local bridging or plugging of the tube inlet leads to large variations in loading weight and density of the tubes. As a result, variations in pressure drop and flow of process gas through the reactor caused by different loading density and weight is detrimental for the overall efficiency of the catalytic process.